Witch's Bane
by elfgirl13
Summary: The Pevensies have established a Golden age in Narnia, but nothing ever stays perfect and the Pevensies know all too well the struggles of ensuring a future for a world to which they do not truly belong. Edmund, a skilled tactician, believes he can solve any problem, but a hunt in the woods changes everything and he's faced with an enigma he never anticipated. Her name is Lydia.
1. Prologue: After the Coronation

Prologue: After the Coronation

The newly crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia stood on the terrace of Cair Paravel, their new home, watching as the Narnians, their subjects, danced and celebrated in the streets. If the people had noticed the absence of a certain Lion, they did not show it, so great was there joy at seeing the fulfillment of such a long anticipated prophecy.

"This is incredible," said Peter, the new High King, shaking his head in disbelief. "If you would have told me two months – no, two weeks ago – that I would be here today as the High King of a magical country in a wardrobe, and that that magical country would be populated by Talking Beasts and all sorts of creatures from the mythologies, I would have said you were mad!"

"We all would have," said Susan. Her cheeks flushed red as she continued: "And I, especially."

She looked away from her brothers and sisters. Edmund, the younger brother, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Since coming to Narnia, he had barely aged a week, and yet somehow he seemed so much older.

"Cheer up, Su," he said softly. "Remember what I was."

Susan nodded, though her eyes seemed to tear up. A heavy silence fell on all the Pevensies as they thought of how Edmund had almost sold them all to the White Witch for a box of pastries. None of them mentioned it, and none of them mentioned the knife with Edmund's name on it; the one Aslan had taken in his place. They didn't have to mention it. Though it remained unspoken, they knew what the others were thinking and none of them liked to remember it.

Lucy, the youngest, turned away from the celebration that would likely go on all night and stared out at the sea. "I wonder where He is," she whispered to herself. But Edmund heard her.

"I'm sure He's wherever He is most needed," he said. "That's where he always seems to be, anyway."

"But we need him," Lucy insisted gloomily, twisting the handkerchief that Mr. Tumnus had been kind enough to return to her. "We need him here."

"No, we don't," said Peter, putting an arm around his youngest sister. "Aslan was here to establish our rule. We are His way of being here. He wouldn't have given us this authority if we weren't up to it."

"I don't feel up to it," Susan confessed. "I still feel like…me. I don't feel like the Queen that Aslan described. I feel like just plain Susan."

"Maybe that's all Aslan wanted," said Edmund. "He didn't choose a great and powerful Queen. We just got rid of one of those." Everyone chuckled appreciatively and even Edmund had to crack a smile before he finished: "He chose plain Susan."

A peaceful silence followed this pronouncement and a radiant smile lit up Lucy's face. "I love it here, she said. "I want to stay forever."

Edmund chuckled a little to himself. "I don't think we can, Lu," he said. "Can you just imagine the poor Professor and Mrs. Macready trying to explain to the police and our parents why we've suddenly vanished off the face of the earth?"

Lucy giggled at the mental image of the old housekeeper staring in blank confusion at the police as they tore the old mansion apart in search of the four missing children. Her laughter was contagious and soon Edmund and Susan had joined in. But a frown creased Peter's face and on seeing their brother looking so suddenly serious the three youngest quickly sobered.

"What is it?" Susan asked. Peter sighed and turned to look back into the throne room, taking in the enormous structure that was Cair Paravel with a look of bitterness.

"He's right," he said. "We will have to go back someday. Aslan would never allow the Professor and Mrs. Macready to suffer for this. He'll have arranged everything." He turned to Lucy and smiled sadly. "I'm afraid we won't be staying forever, Lucy."

Lucy looked ready to cry, but Edmund just bowed his head. Susan nodded as if she had suspected it all along.

"The question is," Peter continued, "what do we do about it?"

"Is there a point?" Edmund asked. "I mean, if we have to leave and we don't know when, we should try to enjoy Narnia while we're here."

"We have responsibilities, Edmund," Susan chided. "We've been given this kingdom to rule and a people to help. We can't abuse our power and practically abandon them on a mere whim."

"But it's not fair!" Lucy looked close to tears as she spoke. "We have to rule Narnia and take care of its people and fight its battles only to leave them in the end. What good will it do?"

Susan put a comforting arm around Lucy's shoulders. The poor girl was distraught, clearly terrified that at any moment she would be dragged away from all her new friends and her new home. But Edmund had a sudden gleam in his eyes.

"We will have to leave someday," he said. "So we need to take precautions. I suggest we make a vow. We'll vow that we'll do our duty to Narnia and more but that we refuse to become so attached to anything that belongs to this world that we will not be able to leave when Aslan says so."

"How can you not become attached to this world?" Lucy demanded.

"It's our only choice, Lu," said Edmund. "We have to swear that nothing in this world will hold us back from ours, and that nothing here will mean more to us than what Aslan wants."

Lucy didn't look happy about it, but she nodded, showing that in spite of her personal feelings, she understood the wisdom of what Edmund was saying.

As the fires in the fields were lit and the dryads' music reached whole new levels of beauty and volume, High King Peter of Narnia drew his sword and held it out in front of him. One by one, Queen Susan, King Edmund, and Queen Lucy grasped the hilt with trembling hands, fully aware of what this meant. When the High King spoke, his voice was soft and solemn, but assured as though in the weeks since coming to Narnia he had passed from boyhood to manhood.

"We, the Kings and Queens of Narnia, swear by the Lion to do our duty to our country, to treat our people with the respect they earn, and defend the nation even at the cost of our own lives to ensure the peaceful future of a world to which we will never belong. We swear that nothing in this world will chain us to this world except for Aslan and that when He wills it we will return to our world."

The sky was nearly dark and the stars were just coming out. An enormous weight seemed to lift from the Kings and Queens' shoulders as they gripped the hilt of Rhindon and solemnly whispered to the night: "This we swear by the Lion."


	2. Chapter 1: Into the Woods, 9 years later

Chapter 1: Into the Woods, 9 years later

The horses' hooves pounded the ground as Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy galloped through the forest. This was not the safest course of action for any of them, and they spent the majority of their time ducking and weaving branches and trees, trying desperately to avoid any serious injury. Lucy had her cordial, true, but they preferred to safe that for emergencies and serious injuries. It was a waste to see it used on minor cuts and scrapes. And so they did the best they could to avoid hurting themselves through their recklessness.

Lucy, as always, rode in front. The years had changed her, almost to the point where she was unrecognizable. Her golden hair, which had barely hung to her shoulders nine years earlier, now fell in graceful curls nearly to her waist. She was no longer the little girl she had been when they came to Narnia, but her peacock blue eyes, though they had seen much, had lost none of their childlike innocence. While her body had grown and become that of a young woman, her caring heart remained unchanged.

Behind her rode Peter, who was always concerned with his youngest sister's safety, especially since she had the most unfortunate habit of wandering off at the most inopportune times and inadvertently causing chaos. He urged his horse to a faster pace, impatiently brushing his shaggy blond hair out of his face (Susan was right it needed to be cut again) with his left hand while maintaining a firm grip on the reigns with his right. But somehow Lucy managed to stay ahead.

Edmund and Susan brought up the rear together. Edmund was a highly skilled rider, and could easily outpace all three of his siblings with very little real effort, but he knew that when he did set the pace, Susan, a much more timid horsewoman, tended to get left behind. So, he practiced self control whenever the entire family went on a hunt and stayed by his older sister's side. Naturally, Susan was grateful for his consideration, but part of her always hated herself for not being able to keep up with the others. It didn't help that she hated horses, nasty smelly things that they were; unless they could talk.

Peter called for Lucy to slow down for what felt like the hundredth time. Either she finally heard him or the thickening foliage made it impossible to maintain her breakneck pace, but she reined her horse in to a much more reasonable trot, giving her panting siblings a chance to catch up.

"I thought I saw something," she said, not even breathing heavily. "But then I lost sight of it."

"What did you think you saw, Lu?" Peter asked, patting the horse on the neck. He had to speak up to be heard over the sound of the poor beast's labored breathing.

"A stag," said Lucy promptly. "I saw it just over there between those trees."

"The White Stag?" Edmund asked, suddenly interested. "Was it the White Stag? Could you see?"

"No," sighed Lucy. "It was most certainly brown, but it was rather large."

Edmund looked slightly crestfallen. He wiped his brow with the sleeve of his dark blue tunic and took a long drink from the flask at his hip. His horse whinnied impatiently. Smirking slightly, Edmund offered him a sip from the flask. The horse snorted, which Edmund took as a "no."

"Whatever it was," said Susan, looking around, "it is gone now. We really should head back. Peridan will be frantic with worry. We never should have left the hunting party."

Edmund sighed. "We never would have caught anything with that crowd," he said. "They made more noise than a giant with a head cold."

"We are not doing very well at catching anything even apart from the large party," Susan pointed out. "Do we even know where we are?"

Edmund opened his mouth to answer, but just as quickly closed it, looking slightly bewildered. Lucy's brows furrowed in concentration and confusion as she surveyed her surroundings. Peter just shrugged.

"I thought this was your domain, Susan," he said. "The south, am I right?"

Susan sniffed. "Yes, it is my domain," she said, "but that does not mean I know every tree in the woods. We rarely come here."

"This is not important," said Edmund. "We must find where we are. Which way was the hunting party?"

His question was met with blank stares. The trees all looked alike and the sun was at high noon. There was no telling from what direction they came.

"Can I just say how absolutely wonderful it is to travel with you skilled navigators?" Peter said dryly. Lucy and Susan bristled angrily.

"You tell us where we are then, Magellan," said Susan. Lucy snorted with laughter, but quickly sobered at the look on the High King's face.

"We promised Beaver we would be back by sunset," Peter said. He turned to Lucy. "This is what comes of your reckless riding."

"Oh, so this is my fault now?" Lucy's cheeks were growing redder, fury growing inside her.

"Quiet!" Edmund said suddenly, holding up a hand.

"What?" his three siblings demanded as one.

"I thought I heard something."

"Oh, please!" Susan scoffed. "If it is another imaginary stag – "

She never finished her thought because at that moment, an arrow whizzed past her ear and imbedded itself in a tree directly behind her. She and Lucy screamed and the Kings both reached for their swords. Before they could draw, two more arrows shot past, one after the other, both barely missing them.

"Who goes there?" Peter demanded, sounding exactly like the High King he was. There was no response. Silently, he nodded to Edmund, who slipped into the shadows of the trees and disappeared without even a rustle to mark his progress. Susan fitted an arrow onto her bowstring and drew the shaft to the corner of her mouth. All three of them held their breath and an ominous silence fell; an ominous silence that was broken moments later by a high-pitched shriek.


	3. Chapter 2: Friend and Foe

Chapter 2: Friend and Foe

Edmund suddenly emerged from the trees dragging a very slight girl that looked about Lucy's age. She was so filthy that they could barely make out her features. Her rust red dress was faded, frayed, and torn in so many places it looked as though she had worn nothing else for months. She had long, red-brown hair that was unkempt and positively wild-looking, yet this was not what stood out to the Kings and Queens of Narnia. The first feature they noticed was her eyes: dark gray and almost violet, the color of storm clouds. The other thing that drew their notice was the long, ugly, jagged scar that ran from her left ear to her jaw.

"Caught her," Edmund said proudly, shoving the girl roughly away from him. She stumbled but maintained her balance, turning and giving him a glare that could make flowers whither.

"But…who is this?" Susan stammered in disbelief, wrinkling her nose a little at the girl's appearance.

"This is our mystery archer," said Edmund. "See?" He pointed to the quiver strapped to her back. Lucy tugged the arrow that had missed Susan out of the tree and held it up to compare it to the mystery girl's. They were identical. Peter let out a low whistle.

"You have some explaining to do," he told the girl. "Why were you shooting at us?"

The girl coughed. Her eyes swiveled around, looking for a way to escape. Her shoulders sagged when she found none. "I did not want to hurt anyone," she said. "I only wanted to scare you away."

"But why?" Peter pressed.

The girl sighed and brushed some hair behind her ears. "I thought you were a threat," she said. "I thought you had come to harm me."

"Well, that is unlikely," said Susan, "as we do not even know where we are and had no idea you were here."

"That much is obvious."

Edmund scowled. "And what is that supposed to mean?" he demanded. The girl turned and met his gaze without flinching.

"It means that I have known you were in the woods for the better part of an hour and you were unaware of me until you came too close to my home," she said coolly.

"Home?" said Lucy. She looked around. "Do you…live here?"

The girl didn't answer right away. She gently tugged her arrow from Lucy's grasp and retrieved the other two before she even acknowledged the question. "I do," she said. "And I have for a year now. Or at least I think it has been a year. It is difficult to mark the passage of time here after more than a few weeks."

"Goodness!" Susan exclaimed. "No wonder you look such a fright."

"Why thank you." The girl's voice dripped with irony. "You look lovely, yourself."

Susan blushed. "I only meant…what I mean to say is…"

"It does not matter," the girl cut in. "I have not had much opportunity to take care of my appearance."

"What is your name?" Peter asked. The girl looked surprised that he had asked such a personal question.

"Lydia," she said. "My name is Lydia."

"And where are you from, Lydia?"

Her expression darkened. "That, I will not say."

Peter, Susan, and Lucy exchanged knowing looks, but Edmund refused to tear his eyes away from Lydia. His distrust was obvious, but whether the feeling was mutual remained to be seen.

"What do you eat?" Susan asked, sounding very much like a mother as she took a step toward the forest girl.

"Whatever I can get," Lydia said with a shrug. "Meat, usually, when the hunting is good, and I am good at finding herbs and other plants to eat." She indicated a small gray pouch at her hip, at the same time unconsciously drawing attention to the knife she also wore there. "I get by."

"You are thinner than a willow!" cried Susan. "Peter, can we take her – ?"

"No," Edmund interrupted. "She shot at us, remember? She tried to kill us?"

"Scare us," Lucy corrected. "She tried to scare us. There is a difference."

"Still, we can't trust her!"

"Speak for yourself," said Susan. "The poor girl was terrified. What would you have done?" She turned to her older brother. "What do you think, Peter?"

Peter scratched his chin and looked from Edmund, who was frantically shaking his head, to Susan and Lucy, who were silently begging him with their eyes, to Lydia, who was surveying the whole scene with a certain amount of uneasiness. At last, he opened his mouth to reply, but what he said was not what they were expecting.

"Do you know where we are?" he asked, addressing Lydia. The girl arched her eyebrows.

"You are in the Border Forest," she said. "The forest that leads to the pass on the border between Narnia and Archenland. The border is about three miles to the west."

Susan breathed a sigh of relief and beamed at Edmund, who continued to scowl. Peter nodded, clearly impressed.

"Very well," he said. "Lydia, lady of the forest, we wish for you to serve as our guide. We are lost and need to find our way to the Hunter's Clearing. Do you know it?"

"Vaguely."

"Then you will guide us and then you will accompany us home, where you will be welcome to stay for as long as you would like."

Lydia took a step back. "No," she said. "I will guide you to the Hunter's Lawn but I will not go further. This is my home and I do not know if I can trust you. I do not even know your names!"

"That is easily rectified," said Lucy. "My name is Lucy, and this is my sister Susan and my brother Peter. Edmund is the unfriendly one. Sadly, he is also my brother."

Edmund made a face but said nothing, not even responding to Lydia's cool nod.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Lydia said, turning back to Lucy, "but I cannot go with you."

"You can, and you will," said Peter, "by order of the High King."

"Oh, and he just hands out authority, does he?" Lydia scoffed. "Tell me, why has the High King taken such an interest in a forest wench?"

"He does not hand out authority," said Peter. "I am High King Peter of Narnia and you are in my realm."

Lydia gasped and sputtered. She looked like she was about to choke. She finally gained control of herself and dropped into a surprisingly graceful curtsy. "Your highness," she said. "Forgive me; I had no idea."

"Oh, call me Peter. Just know that I can pull rank if I have to."


	4. Chapter 3: To Cair Paravel

Chapter 3: To Cair Paravel

Edmund did not trust this strange forest drifter. He saw no reason to. After all, whatever her intentions had been, she had shot at them from behind a tree. Susan had almost been killed and he and Peter had both had close calls, too. As Susan and Lucy disappeared into the trees with Lydia to gather up her belongings, he tried to confide his fears in his brother. But no sooner were the words out of his mouth than Peter signaled for him to be quiet.

"I understand," he said softly, "and your fears are not unfounded, but now is not the time or the place to talk about this."

"Then you see no problem with bringing home a complete stranger that may or may not want to kill us," Edmund muttered dryly.

"I see no problem with trusting a native of the forest to lead us out of here. We have no choice, Edmund. We do not know where we are and she does. Sometimes need, not trust, creates alliances."

Edmund could not argue with Peter's logic. He was right: Lydia, whoever she truly was, was their only hope of getting out of the strange woods without blindly guessing. Without a guide, they could be trapped for days, weeks even, until they found their way out by sheer accident or some Dryad that knew the area found them and sent word to Cair Paravel. Not only would having to admit that they were lost in the woods in a country that they had ruled for quite some time be very embarrassing, but the amount of work it would take to sort out the chaos that comes from four missing rulers would be a nightmare. No, Peter was right, Edmund just didn't like it.

It was a matter of minutes before the girls reemerged from the trees, laughing. Lucy had apparently been relating the story of how they had managed to get themselves so hopelessly lost to Lydia, who looked exactly the same as she had minutes before aside from a worn leather satchel slung over her shoulder. Susan offered to take it from her and tie it to her saddle, but Lydia refused, adamantly shaking her head and holding protectively onto the leather strap.

"Is that all, then?" Peter asked, looking slightly surprised.

"Yes," replied Lydia, the smile dropping from her face. "What were you expecting, your highness? Jewels? Riches?"

_Well, you never know_, Edmund thought to himself, but for the first time he began to wonder if perhaps at one point this stranger had been as lost as they were. But he quickly shoved that thought aside. It does not do to feel too much pity towards a suspected traitor, after all, especially when they have already nearly killed you.

"Well," said Peter, after an awkward pause that went on just a little too long. "We should be off. By the sun, it is already past noon by at least three hours and we will want to reach Cair Paravel by sunset if we do not want Masters Tumnus and Beaver mustering the army to look for us."

They began to mount up again, but Lydia did not move. For the first time, they realized that they had four horses and five riders. There was a lively debate as they tried to determine who would share their horse for the duration of the ride home. Lucy was the obvious choice, but when Susan pointed out that Lucy's young mare Apple was too small to be able to carry two riders all the way to Cair Paravel, they quickly abandoned the idea. Susan's horse was likewise rejected for similar reasons. So it came down to Peter and Edmund. Peter had the larger horse and could most easily support the weight of two people, but Susan expressed concern that a girl as small as Lydia might have difficulty mounting such an enormous horse. Lydia assured them that she could mount just fine, but she might as well have been talking to a post for all the good it did. So, they all agreed on Edmund's horse, much to Edmund's dismay.

Edmund was no stranger to discomfort and he thought he had seen the limit when he had been tied to a tree in the dead of winter with no food, water, or coat. But that was before he knew the discomfort of having to share a horse with a strange girl from the woods that he didn't trust and, moreover, knew he didn't trust her. Judging from the way Lydia was sitting, she was feeling equally uncomfortable. She sat as rigid as a post in the saddle, and despite Edmund's grudging offer to allow her to hold on to his waist, she preferred to grip with her knees, keeping as much distance between them as possible in such a small space.

Explaining to a frantic Lord Peridan where they had been was hard enough, but putting him off was even harder. His curiosity was naturally aroused when his liege lords rode into the camp at Hunter's Lawn with a strange girl that looked as if she had literally sprung up from the ground. However, on orders from all four Kings and Queens, he agreed to hold his questions until they reached Cair Paravel.

They arrived home just as the sun was setting over the distant mountains, casting a golden light on everything. They galloped through the gate and were welcomed by the sight of their royal advisors, Masters Tumnus and Beaver, standing by the enormous oak doors that marked the entrance to the castle itself and wearing expressions of relief.

"Your majesties!" Tumnus cried, trotting as quickly as his goat feet would allow to Peter as he dismounted. "We have been going out of our minds with worry! We expected you back hours ago! The kitchen badgers have been frantic trying to keep supper warm – I fear it is cold now – and we…" He trailed off, his jaw dropping into the shape of a perfect O as Edmund dismounted and he caught his first sight of the unexpected guest.

Edmund, seeing that the Faun was about to bombard him with questions, shook his head in warning and held out his hand to help Lydia dismount. This she ignored. She slid easily from the back of the horse and landed lightly on her feet like a cat. With a slight curtsy to Tumnus, she turned and stood between Susan and Lucy.

"Your majesties," Beaver began.

"Not now, Master Beaver," said Peter. "We shall meet in the throne room in ten minutes. At the moment, Lady Lydia is in great need of rest and a change of clothes."

"We will take her," said Susan, linking arms with the girl and practically dragging her into the castle. Lucy followed at a run and soon they had disappeared. Peter turned to his advisors and Edmund, his polite demeanor gone.

"Throne room," he said.

The throne room of Cair Paravel was enormous. The floor was made of pristine white marble with an image of the Lion in the exact center, surrounded by the points of the compass. Marble columns lined the walls, drawing all eyes to the four thrones raised slightly above the floor on a marble dais. Above their heads was a glass dome that allowed in so much sunlight, the torches were rarely lit, even in the evening. Even with the sun going down, there was still enough light to see by as Peter and Edmund stepped onto the dais and collapsed into their thrones as though they were no more than chairs.

"Your majesties," said Tumnus again, no longer able to contain himself. "What is going on?"

"I was wondering the same thing," said Edmund, addressing Peter. "What is going on Peter?"

Peter kneaded his forehead with his hands. When he looked up, his expression was unreadable. "What do you think?" he asked Peridan.

"I think your highness is making a poor decision allowing that drifter to stay here," Peridan answered promptly.

"I agree," said Edmund. "Peter, she tried to kill us."

"What?" gasped Peridan, Tumnus, and Beaver as one. Edmund was relieved to see that they looked as horrified as he felt.

"She said it was an accident," said Peter. "She was only trying to scare us away."

"That's just it. _She said. _How do we know we can trust her?"

"Have you seen any reason not to?"

"Peter, _she tried to kill us._"

"If I may," interjected Tumnus, grabbing his horns the way he did when he had a brilliant idea. "Whatever she is, friend or foe, perhaps the High King is right. If she is a friend, you are giving her a better life here than she will ever have in the woods. If she is a foe, what better place to have her than here, where you can watch her continuously and prevent her from getting up to any mischief?"

Edmund opened his mouth to argue, but quickly closed it again. Once again, he had been outdone. Perhaps Susan was giving everyone lessons in debate. But he could see from the look on Peter's face that the Faun had convinced him. Whether Edmund liked it or not, Lydia the drifter was there to stay, at least for the time being, and he knew he had better get accustomed to her presence.


End file.
